THE RTI ACT IS IT BECOMING A CURSE FOR INDIAN DEMOCRACY?

THE RTI ACT IS IT BECOMING A CURSE FOR INDIAN DEMOCRACY?

The recent “mysterious” hit and run accident which lead to the death of yet another RTI activist Ravinder Balwani in New Delhi certainly raises some serious questions about the Act. The most serious question it raises is how safe does the citizen feel in using the RTI in India as of today? The honest answer is that it has not only proved to be unsafe but also lethal in most cases. This is quite evident from the number of the deaths of RTI activist this country has seen over the last few years.

The RTI or the RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005 was first passed in 2005 with the intention to provide citizens the rights to information under the control of public authorities. Unfortunately over the last few years the use of this Act has lead to a number of deaths of RTI activist which is really sad. What it also shows is the brutal fact that the entire democratic set up in India is completely corrupted and urgently needs a complete revamp. They say that ” statistics do not lie” and it certainly is true when you look at the number of deaths of RTI activist since 2010 which stands at 12 activist and with no signs in decrease in the number of deaths. It certainly shows the inability of the political leadership in the country to provide for protection for these activitist. The only way protection for these activitist is possible is if the RTI Act is amended in a way that safety of these activist is given top most priority. One of the major reasons safety has to be given top priority is because many of these activist do not belong to any particular organization but act alone.

Apart from safety issues that needs to be looked at it is also the democratic system that needs a complete makeover. The reason these activists are getting killed is because most of the time everyone from the political leaders,judiciary to the law enforcers i.e. police are hand in glove with the guilty parties. With such blatant corruption within the system it is not a surprising that so many activists are being killed. The unfortunate aspect is nothing really concrete is being done to solve this issue. It is high time this issue needs to addressed by all our political leaders in our country.

The real issue lies in lack in real leadership in our so called leaders in India. As a result of which the initiative required to make the changes is not visible which is real shame on Indian democracy. Unfortunately if things do not change then the RTI Act will end up being a curse rather than a boon for Indian democracy which would be a tragedy

The recent 'mysterious' hit and run accident which lead to the death of yet another RTI activist Ravinder Balwani in New Delhi certainly raises some serious questions about the Act. The most serious question it raises is how safe does the citizen feel in using the RTI in India...